This Is Not A Love Story
by Rayne-Jelly
Summary: A re-write of that scene you know the one in School Hard. Warnings for Spander-That's-Not and Final Death.


**Author's Note: **I'm ninety-two point seven percent sure that the title says it all. I suppose I _could _explain myself if I really felt the need. But I talk too damn much. This actually recieved a favorable response elsewhere, so I thought I'd stick it up here for fun.

* * *

"Undead liar guy…" Angel's bait is saying, just before Spike beats his sire into unconsciousness.

Spike flings the boy to a minion, muttering a distracted "Hold that" while he deals with Angel, length of pipe swinging in controlled arcs that, were he not so serious about bashing soul-boy's skull in, might have been called graceful.

It doesn't take as long as he'd anticipated, but Angel is weak from pigs' blood and slayer worship, and crumples to the ground like a prom dress at midnight, which is appropriate for a high school. Not dead, not dust, because Dru still needs him to be healthy again, but dealt with for now.

Spike turns to the bait that is squirming in the arms of his minion, kicking and cursing because both his wrists are held fast, purple bruises blooming in the shapes of fingers, and the minion, whose name is Gregory, looks like he's losing patience. Spike's frankly surprised Gregory lasted this long, and he rips the bait away, slamming him against a row of lockers.

"Ow! Fuck… lemme go!" The bait voices its protest loudly enough, but stops struggling when Spike shakes it by the shoulders and whacks its head against the hollow lockers a few times, probably dazing it. Huge brown eyes stare at him from out of a pale oval face and the boy's hand comes up to curl into the edge of Spike's duster – not pleading with Spike, just steadying himself, and Spike takes half a second to think "Pretty" before snagging the boy by the face and wrenching his head aside.

Spike didn't receive much of Dru's gift at his turning, he'd never picked up the knack of seeing the future in soggy tea leaves but sometimes there is a flash, the merest spark of foresight that pushes him away from his plan. It has kept him alive, given him a reputation for being wild, unpredictable, and effectively violent and as the years rolled by Spike learned that the little Dru had managed to impart has only been to his benefit. He's learned to listen to it. What he sees, however, what he _feels _in that delicate instant when the rough pads of his fingers dig into the boy's jaw, flesh to flesh, is so much more than a spark, more than Dru's dollies ever whispered in her ear. What he sees is years of the future.

He sees the boy running down the hall away from him, tripping over too-large sneakers; sees a game of cat and mouse and sees that the boy will shudder if Spike licks the line of his collar bone. He sees Angel's soul drop away like a cheap wrist-watch and experiences all the havoc the mad bastard wreaks – on him. Spike sees Dru and demons that aren't him together in a way that makes him seethe, sees pain and chaos and lights in his head, he sees men in green and sees things that make no sense or things that make too much sense, sees himself years from now in this very school preparing to die and he sees love. He watches the game of cat and mouse become a different game all together, the kind he and Dru used to play before she was ill; Spike sees the huge brown eyes that are watching him now crinkle into a smile, he sees laughter and sweet, playful sex, trust that's breathtaking. He sees grief and glory and adoration and crushing defeat and hundreds of things besides that he thought he'd shelved when he was human.

Spike sees an entire lifetime bloom like fire, beautiful and devastating, at the touch of this boy's skin. When his fangs tear into the muscle at the boy's neck, ripping into an artery, he knows the blood pumping down his throat is some of the purest he's ever had, and he remembers for almost thirty seconds after the corpse crumples to the ground that the boy didn't beg for his life.

Two weeks later, after Dru is whole and Angelus is dead, the Slayer catches up with him, and Spike isn't surprised when the stake slides between his ribs, because he saw that too.

The end.


End file.
